Hope. Flash fiction entry

It had been months since the accident. The pain of loss was no longer as sharp, now simply a dull ache. Her light had been extinguished. She searched for hope but was it just out of her grasp.

She had taken to walking every morning, determined to find hope in her neighborhood streets. She would give it one more day..one more walk. Deep in her thoughts, reliving the minutes before the crash rather than watching her next steps, she bumped into him. She had seen them before, always sitting next to but not on the worn park bench. He was old and worn, obviously homeless but certainly not dangerous. Apologizing for her intrusion, she noticed the pins. A gallon size plastic bag of safety pins. She couldn't help but ask why he had such a treasurer.

"Everything can be repaired with pins. Torn sleeves. Unattached buttons. Even broken hearts." If only it was that easy she thought. She gave him the change in her pocket and continued her walk.

It started to get dark and she still did not find the hope she desperately needed. Turning at her favorite maple tree, she decided to take her final walk home.

"Miss! Wait, I have something for you!" It was the old man shuffling toward her, waving something. With no where to be, she stopped. He approached and handed it to her.

"Thank you but what is it?"

"I made you a rainbow. I thought you needed it". And with those simple words, he turned and walked away. In her hand she held his rainbow: a piece of blue tarp pinned to a green leave, a torn yellow mitten, an orange parking ticket and a lost red scarf.

Clutching her rainbow she headed home looking forward to tomorrow's adventure.